3 Ordering Tips To Get The Best McDonald's Chicken Sandwich

Despite its focus on burgers, McDonald's menu has featured chicken since the early '80s. McNuggets made their grand debut in 1983, partly due to growing concerns about the health effects of beef. The chain also tooled around with several iterations of its chicken sandwiches over time. As of 2026, McDonald's offers the McChicken and the McCrispy (a riff on Chick-fil-A's Southern-style sandwich), which comes in Spicy and Deluxe versions. As good as these sandwiches are, certain adjustments can make them even tastier. As such, we've curated the most promising ordering tips and menu hacks to elevate McDonald's chicken sandwiches.

Requesting a few additional toppings allows customers to create a sandwich that isn't technically available from the Golden Arches. The other tips featured here, however, are a bit more involved, and you'll have to order the necessary items and assemble the upgraded chicken sandwich yourself (unless you encounter a helpful McDonald's associate with a creative streak). You can also check out our ultimate ranking of McDonald's chicken sandwiches for additional ordering inspo.

Back in 2024, McDonald's briefly offered a Chicken Big Mac. The sandwich featured most elements of the original (cheese, pickles, lettuce, and Big Mac sauce) but with chicken patties in place of the burgers. While you can't order it off the menu anymore, a version of the sandwich is still available. "Get a Big Mac and 2 McChickens," advised a Reddit commenter in a thread about the now-defunct sandwich. "Turn it into a Chicken Big Mac and 2 hamburgers." In response to this McNugget of wisdom, another commenter joked, "Hello. I am the CEO of McDonalds please take this post down."

While we admit there is some work involved, this is the best way to get your hands on a proximation of the Chicken Big Mac in the U.S. (the sandwich did return to Canadian locations for a limited time). Obviously, this hack works best for two to three people, and the assembly process should be performed at a table inside the restaurant or at home. One small caveat: The original Chicken Big Mac was made with tempura-battered chicken, which the restaurant no longer carries. Instead, you get the McChicken patty, which has been likened to a big chicken nugget in taste and texture.

Club sandwiches are triple-layer behemoths featuring toast, sliced deli meat (usually turkey, ham, or chicken), cheese, bacon, and mayonnaise, plus lettuce and tomatoes. The real draws of this sandwich are its contrasting flavors and textures — it's simultaneously creamy, juicy, and crunchy. If you're craving a chicken club but don't feel like making it yourself, you can customize a McDonald's chicken sandwich with a few select toppings. The restaurant actually encourages patrons to personalize their orders, and you can make a surprising number of adjustments when ordering through the app.

First, choose your chicken. As we touched upon earlier, the McCrispy comes with a Southern-style patty, while the McChicken patty has a nugget-like appeal. Next, add toppings. Ask for the sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and tomato, and get a mayo packet or two on the side. You'll also need bacon, which normally comes with the Bacon Quarter Pounder. If you'd like to mimic the towering height of a classic club, you can double up on the chicken patties when customizing your order.

Some secret menu items eventually make their way to a restaurant's official menu. Take the Land, Air & Sea, one of several fan-favorite menu hacks that became reality at McDonald's. Credited to a fan named Julian Broadway (aka fast food's Dr. Frankenstein), the meal entails stacking a McChicken on top of a Big Mac, then stacking those sandwiches on top of a Filet-O-Fish. McDonald's Menu Hacks are sadly a thing of the past, but there's nothing stopping you from ordering these three sandwiches and building the Land, Air & Sea on your own.

According to one adventurous diner on Reddit, "[The Land, Air & Sea] Didn't taste that horrible but I felt like I was going to die lol." Another McDonald's patron in chimed in to say, "Halfway through it falls apart and you eat it like drunk David Hasselhoff." You could minimize some of the mess by getting fewer toppings, but that might diminish the experience. As the inventor of the sandwich relayed (per a press release), "Go big baby!"